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Public Bodies Bill [HL]

I am not in a position to comment in detail on the noble Lord’s figures. That is a matter for discussions elsewhere. All I know is that the focus of the regional growth fund will be, as I just said, on those areas where communities have become particularly dependent on the public sector for employment and where private sector-led growth offers an opportunity for future development in those parts of the country. The fund will support the best proposals that come forward, wherever they come from and whether they come from private enterprise or the local enterprise partnerships. It will complement the other measures that the Government are taking to support growth through investment, education and skills, improvements in competition and research and innovation. I turn now to the noble Lord’s specific amendments. While Amendment 12 is designed to achieve the practical and sensible aim of allowing transfers of functions from bodies appearing in Schedule 1 to the Bill to local enterprise partnerships, we do not believe it is necessary. As I have said, in inviting businesses, local authorities and their partners to establish LEPs, Ministers chose to allow them the maximum level of flexibility. This extends to the type of partnership arrangements that they should put in place, which will be a matter for the partners themselves. Because of this, the Government do not intend to give local enterprise partnerships a statutory definition in the localism Bill or elsewhere. In other words, there will be no uniform model for local enterprise partnerships; they will be unique to the location in which they operate. With this in mind, the Bill is deliberately drafted to allow transfer of functions and assets to local enterprise partnerships, whatever legal form the partners choose to give them. Clause 1(3) defines an ““eligible person”” in a very wide way, including companies limited by guarantee and community interest companies. We expect many local enterprise partnerships will take these forms. In addition, in the case of transfers from the RDAs, Note 2 to Schedule 1 allows transfers to any body corporate. Therefore, the Bill as currently drafted already allows transfers to local economic partnerships in whatever form the partners choose to give them. There have been questions about what will happen to RDA assets. This was all set out in the Local Growth White Paper. RDA assets and liabilities will be disposed of or transferred in line with a clear set of shared principles, which include aiming for the best possible outcome for the region, consistent with achieving value for the public purse. Amendments 8 and 16 have the potential seriously to hamper realisation of the vision set out in the Government’s Local Growth White Paper. As I have said, we have asked local enterprise partnerships to respond to real economic geography. In some cases, for example the south Midlands—which noble Lords might well be aware of—Sheffield and Coast to Capital partnerships, they cross the old regional boundaries. We expect this trend to develop as more partnerships come forward or new partners become involved. These amendments would reimpose these artificial regional boundaries, which we sought to avoid. I gave an example from my personal experience of how difficult these artificial boundaries can sometimes be. In doing so, the amendments would remove the flexibility that lies at the heart of our policy. There are also examples of activities and assets that were developed with RDA money and are situated in particular regions, but which have national significance. For example, the wave hub in the south-west, by demonstrating the potential of new forms of power generation, brings benefits to the country as a whole. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, will be mindful of that, given his previous role as Minister for Energy. Although no final decisions have been taken on transfer of particular functions, it is not likely to be practical for major national projects of this kind to be run and financed by any local enterprise partnership that happens to be nearby. There will be exceptions that are designed to protect the interests of these enterprises of national significance. Nor do we intend to maintain organisations at regional level just to run such enterprises. Our policy will remain flexible and we intend to take account of the evolving capabilities and priorities of different enterprise partnerships. However, it is unlikely that they will all be in a position to take on the full range of functions when RDAs are abolished. I will go through some notes. Yes, the local authority is an eligible person. I was asked that question expressly. In the north-east, the Secretary of State for Business said that he could see a case for a regional-level organisation of some kind but not for keeping the RDA as it was. I suggest that the noble Baroness has to marshal her arguments if she feels that there is a need for some regional co-ordination of the local enterprise partnerships in the north-east. I think I have covered more or less everything that was mentioned in debate. I hope the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment and I look forward to debating these matters further. In response to a request, I will try to arrange for noble Lords to have a briefing that covers this policy, so that it will inform our later debates.